Two developers, one vision, and a zombie outbreak that feels nostalgic.
Moononglint Studios, a husband-and-wife team made up of Alvaro Bethera and Laura Torres, created Echoes of the Living. A lot of independent games claim to bring back the spirit of old games, but this one really shines with love and hard work.
To begin, it’s amazing to think that two people took on the difficult task of creating a full-fledged 3D survival-horror game with two distinct storylines, challenging puzzles, and vast city settings. The early demo had some rough spots, but it has grown into a huge, intense experience that captures the spirit of survival horror from the late 1990s while also telling its own story and offering its own gameplay.
This makes it one of the most ambitious independent survival horror projects in recent years.
This game happily shows its influence from Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and other classics, yet it still manages to be its own thing, with a huge city to explore and a story that keeps players interested.
Echoes of the Living takes place in October 1996 and throws players into Alba City, a town covered in an odd fog that turns normal people into horrifying zombies. Players take control of either Liam Oakwood or, later, Laurel Reaves.
Each character has their own storyline that shows how they feel about the outbreak from a different point of view. Liam’s story begins when he goes to the city to see his partner, Octavia Blade, a private detective investigating a string of killings that may be linked to the evil Wilhelm family.
Early on, Liam has to go to a hotel for safety, but when he gets there, he finds the hallways covered in blood and full of zombies.
From there, he has to find his way through the infected streets, find signs, and fight for his life while trying to figure out where the outbreak came from.
Octavia’s story, which can be played in Liam’s campaign at certain points, is about her research into the Wilhelm family. She starts in her office, looking for clues about who killed her family, and is then dragged into the dark halls of Wilhelm Manor.
These opening scenes put players right into a tense, claustrophobic horror world, complete with locked doors, hidden passages, and jump scares from both the environment and planned encounters. It’s possible that the story itself doesn’t bring anything new to survival horror—corporate conspiracies, mysterious letters, and hordes of infected people are all common tropes—but the mood, character interactions, and well-thought-out pacing make it great.
The gameplay in Echoes of the Living is straight-up retro, evoking great survival horror games from the late 1990s. The tank controls make it easy to move, encouraging slow, careful navigation rather than fast running. Players are in charge of a small inventory and have to choose between guns, healing items, and puzzle-related key objects.
The game encourages careful research, so each room could have resources or be dangerous.
There are many places to explore in the environment, like city streets that connect, abandoned buildings, and hidden passageways that make you want to look closely and go back. Adding stuff like bolt cutters, lamps, and flares makes it harder to make tactical decisions.
Players often have to pick between remaining alive right now and preparing for future duties. Combat is meant to be tough. There is a weight to both firearms and melee weapons, and players have to be careful with each shot because ammo is limited.
For an independent game, the arsenal is fairly big, with axes, shotguns, flare guns, and even pipes or bats wrapped in barbed wire that can be used as weapons. When players are under a lot of pressure to switch to guns, melee weapons break after a while of use.
Zombie-like enemies, faster dogs, spiders, and more specialized “tyrant-style” bosses are all in the game.
Sometimes the AI is aggressive, so players have to hit-and-run, use items in the environment, and be careful with the space they have. Combat sometimes struggles with camera angles, especially in small hallways, but it captures the genre’s feeling of vulnerability.
Some players might find this annoying, especially when they have to go back to places they have already cleared out to find items they forgot they had, but it fits with the survival horror theme. The game also has secondary features, such as picking locks for Octavia and moving heavy objects for Liam. These make small changes to how you play and how you choose your path between campaigns.
Puzzles in Echoes of the Living are always fun because they require you to use logic and pay attention to your surroundings. There are tasks all over the world that require players to pay attention to notes, journals, visual clues, and combination locks, hidden keys, and electronic rotation puzzles.
Combat, on the other hand, strikes a mix between being weak and strong.
Even though players have access to strong weapons, the lack of ammunition and melee weapons that can be destroyed keeps the stress high.
Kick techniques can be used strategically to add space management to battles, but only with certain weapons. Some enemies, like monsters waiting behind doors, can stun-lock players without warning, and the placement of other enemies can sometimes lead to “cheap” hits. Sometimes tank settings make these problems worse, leading to chaos during camera changes.
Even with these problems, the combat is very satisfying, from shooting people in the head with a shotgun to killing them with a flare gun, adding to the standard survival horror feel.
Echoes of the Living doesn’t use XP or other common leveling systems. Players are encouraged to fully engage with the world by exploring, collecting resources, and completing story beats. Taking care of limited resources is like letting natural “growth” happen, which makes careful planning and strategic involvement feel good.
Finding secret passages, puzzles, or other ways to solve problems can give you the same sense of power that XP-based systems are meant to give you.
The graphics are great for a game made by only two people. The environments are very realistic, ranging from trashy city streets to the run-down luxury of private farms. The look is nostalgic, like Resident Evil Code: Veronica, thanks to how the pre-rendered backgrounds blend with the 3D character models.
Lighting is one of the best parts of the game. It sets the mood and guides players’ attention without making danger too obvious. Tension and suspense are built up by lanterns, flickering lights, and shadows that are already there.
The character models are good, however, some details are blurry up close, and hair modeling can sometimes feel like feathers. The creatures’ design is mostly nice, and there are plenty of zombies and enemies to make the visuals exciting. Some people might not like the bosses’ looks, but the overall look is frightening and fits well with the story and gameplay.
The sound design is great and complements the visual mood.
Realistic groans and shuffling sounds from zombies, echoed footsteps in empty halls, and environmental sounds like dripping water or crow calls heighten the tension.
The music is great; it captures the mood of classic survival horror without being too loud, letting quiet spots build tension. Even though safe rooms have music, it doesn’t have that famous “exhale” sound from older games. This is a small complaint about an otherwise great sound experience.
Voice acting is fine, and it’s meant to sound like a late-1990s B-movie horror movie. Octavia gives a strong performance, and some of the supporting characters say lines that sound a little forced, which adds to the nostalgic charm.
The dialogue supports the mood rather than aiming for realism, which adds to the feeling of respect for classic survival horror. Smooth performance on a good PC, but during early access playthroughs, there may be a few longer waiting screens and small bugs, like items respawning.
The two-person team that worked on Echoes of the Living did an amazing job. It accurately recreates the suspense, exploration, and vulnerability of classic survival horror while adding just the right amount of modern polish to make it playable in 2025.
The two missions, Liam and Laurel, offer different points of view and game mechanics, so they should be fun to play again and again.
It clearly pays respect to Resident Evil and Silent Hill, so it doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, but it’s done with confidence and care.
The game’s best features are its mood, puzzles, satisfying combat, and care for telling stories through the surroundings. Controlling tanks, keeping track of supplies, and having few resources all make people feel vulnerable and make them think strategically.
The images, lighting, and sound design make the player feel as if they are in a city falling apart and covered in fog. The story gives them enough background and motivation to explore. Even though there are some small problems, like camera issues, cheap hits, and annoying backtracking, the overall quality of the experience and the care that went into making it make up for them.
